The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted orphan drug designation to AVR-RD-02, a gene therapy candidate for the treatment of Gaucher disease. AVR‑RD‑02, being developed by Avrobio, recently advanced to its first clinical study of the therapy’s safety and effectiveness…
Bone problems are highly common among people with Gaucher disease, with symptoms including chronic bone pain, death of bone tissue due to insufficient blood supply to bones, and fractures, a long-term study shows. The research, “Bone Manifestations in Gaucher Disease: A Monocentric Study of 128 Patients,” will be…
Prevail Therapeutics and Lonza Pharma & Biotech will collaborate in the development and production of Prevail’s PR001 gene therapy for children with type 2 Gaucher disease and for select patients with Parkinson’s disease, the companies announced. Prevail is looking to start recruiting patients with type 2, or pediatric…
Infants who are born encased in a tight and shiny membrane made of skin cells that resembles plastic wrap, and commonly called “collodion babies,” may have severe perinatal (fetal) Gaucher disease, a case report suggests. While the relationship between the two is fully established, this report highlights the importance…
Gaucher disease can predispose patients to rare types of blood cancer, and doctors should be vigilant for the development of these malignancies, a case report suggests. The study, “A case of bony lytic lesions in a patient with Gaucher disease,” was published in the journal…
Gaucher disease is not common in people with a group of disorders called plasma cell dyscrasias (PCDs), which include multiple myeloma. But screening for these disorders among Gaucher patients could be helpful, according to new research. The study, “Screening for Gaucher disease among patients with plasma cell…
A new fly model of Gaucher disease may more fully summarize and present the molecular complexities of the disease in humans than other animal models do, researchers say. This recapitulated model may allow scientists to better understand disease mechanisms and design new therapeutic approaches. The fly model was described…
Mobile phone-based monitoring may allow for better measurement of how Gaucher disease affects the lives of those who have it, a new pilot study reports. The investigators suggest that such monitoring also might allow healthcare providers to improve personalized care, and could be useful in research. Titled “…
What began in the early 1990s as an informal gathering of seven European patient groups in the Italian port of Trieste has evolved into the world’s largest charity for Gaucher disease. The International Gaucher Alliance (IGA) — founded by France, Germany, Great Britain, Israel, Italy, and the Netherlands…
Next month’s annual conference of the National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD) in Washington, D.C., couldn’t come at a better time, says Marshall Summar, MD, chairman of NORD’s board of directors. “The pace of discovery in rare diseases has gone from brisk to hypersonic,” Summar told BioNews Services, publisher…
